Marketing Report

Through the product range offered and the middle-range price level, WHSmith targets a wide demographic in terms of age, income level and family life cycle. Geographically, the store location catchment is relatively wide due to their prominent locations. Demographically, family gate-keepers and browsing husbands are targeted as they buy children’s books. Women, especially of middle-age, hold the buyer power in the adult book category, as the majority are of income group A or B and they buy for themselves and for others. Women are also the group who buy the most stationery (including mothers purchasing school supplies for their children) as well as students and economic groups A and B. Again women form the customer base for gift wrap and cards, along with the time-poor employed. This analysis of WHSmith’s customer profile in these categories should allow the marketing team to tailor their strategies to

In contrast to Borders Group, Barnes & Noble which is a leading bookstore in the US recorded an 11% increase in their share value in the past year with the introduction of their e-book reader “Nook”. It is clear that Barnes & Noble were not “Myopic” in their approach and were able to retain and even grow their customers as well as profits by embracing a new product.

Impulse shopping, ease of access to reading and price of the traditional book is something that WHSmith can offer through the variety of stores. It should continue to focus its merchandizing strategy on “offering”, showing “irresistible traditional books”.|StrategyT1/W3 - Centralized authority does not allow for bottom up approach to improvements. Decentralization of the management will allow WHSmith to bring fresh approach to the in-store experience and, thus, attract new client groups.T2/W2 – with strong competition among just a few large chains innovation comes as an essential asset. WHSmith should bring through innovation culture to all the levels of its operations.T3/W1 – customer loyalty is one of the assets that basically does not exist in the book retails. Appearance of e-books even further challenges the stores. To leverage this threat WHSmith should develop –book proposition and look at differentiation in virtual sales.|

The bookstore industry in the US is comprised of a mix of a few large chain bookstores such as Barnes and Noble and many smaller, private and/or family owned businesses. As far as market size goes, the bookstore industry accumulated approximately $14 billion in annual revenue last year, according to IBIS. The overall industry has been experiencing a decline over the last decade, largely as a consequence of the growing trend of e-commerce, and is expected to continue this trend. Many bookstores have tried to capitalize on the new trend by offering e-readers and e-books.

The premium beer segment is poised to grow at around 10% per annum and in the past year itself the growth of the premium beer has been at 9.1% by volume. (Appendix A: Exhibit 2)

Established in 1995, LUSH is dedicated to making fresh, organic toiletries that provide an ethical alternative to traditional methods of cosmetics production. The organization emphasizes handmade, organic products that use natural ingredients sourced in an ethical manner. LUSH has demonstrated its success, increasing the company’s turnover ten-fold within the last 10 years, culminating in a turnover of £326mm in 2012(http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5f418594-041c-11e2-9675-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2jfp2LUpW(not work)). There are many ways in which LUSH has capitalized on their market position, foremost being their vibrant brand personality, unique product range, and customer oriented approach to marketing. However, there are

The specialized online retail store, Zappos, was established over eighteen years ago. The founder, Nick Swinmurn, created Zappos.com after he spent an unsuccessful day shopping for shoes both in store and online. Nick’s irritation and annoyance of his shopping experience prompted him to focus on creating an online shoe store that offered a large selection of shoes, as well as providing great customer service. Since launching Zappos.com, the company has seen enormous progression including a union with another online leader, Amazon (About Zappos, n.d.).

In September 2004, Wendy Wiley, the Northlake Bookstore manager, was considering the implications of a shocking development. For the first time in her seven years as the Bookstore manager, textbook sales for this fall had decreased from the prior fall sales. The sales decrease was approximately $180,000, or 3% of annual textbook sales. Wendy wanted to address this problem before it got worse. She found that this sales decrease was due to two emerging technology problems, possibly of equal magnitude: 1) the students’ increasing use of online

Book stores have been hit hard with the fast take of the digital wave. In the early 2000, most business analysts have predicted demise for most independent bookstores. Indeed, such fate didn’t just affect independent cozy bookstores, but captured the global chains as well. Over 1,000 independent bookstores across the United States shut down their operations between 2000 and 2007. In 2011, Borders (the global book chain) filed for bankruptcy. Barnes and Noble was not more fortunate.

Books, a source of entertainment, education and interest, have been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. Books are widely used at schools, in the workplace and at home, but the recent information age has the taken the world by storm, with the introduction of tablets, e-books and kindles which all provide a convenient use of ‘books’. People’s change in lifestyle and tastes comes with a craze over technology, which begs the question that; are hard copy books that are sold in high street retailers at risk of being extinguished by online resources of books? Or will the long-standing book hold too much sentimental and historical value? This report aims to identify and discuss upon whether High Street retailers and online

1   -­‐ -­‐ -­‐ -­‐ -­‐ Hard  Copy  Heritage  Value:  “Best  Sellers”  and  Classic  in  this  Print  Form   will  increase  in  value  with  time  and  become  legacy/heritage  items  for   families,  personal  collecting  -­‐  Hard  Book   Copies  will  not  go  away  and  will   be  much  like  the  Vinyl  33  in  the  record  industry.   Innovate  and  create  their  own  direct  path  to  market  –  Publishers  can   avoid  and  eliminate  middle  players  (Amazon,  Apple,  etc.)  and  go  directly   to  customers  through  social  media  channels  –  a  home  page  on  web,   tweeter,  Facebook  can  be  used  for  promotion,  sales,  and  distribution  of   Publisher  end  products  for  quicker  and  more  direct  sales  –  moving  away   from  mortar  and  bricks  to  on-­‐line  methods.

One of the major problem that I encountered was the problem of book sales. I had to sell twenty copies of my book in a short timescale. However, by reading forums and people 's blogs, I realised that selling twenty books might be more difficult that I thought it would be. Indeed, apparently a lot of people are selling one or two books per week, even if the book is at only 0,99 euros (kdp.forum, 2011). But obviously, marketing is playing an extremely important role, and it also depends on the genre of the book.

XYZ Company is a popular book chain. The question to answer by the analysis is there is a reduction in sales of hardcover and paperback books since the release of the electronic reading devices available. Continuing the analysis from the previous weeks, Team A researches Barnes & Noble data collection techniques and performs further analysis. In reviewing the analysis data, the Team is able to explore potential challenges that can come from the validity and reliability of the questionnaire survey. The Team explores steps to overcome these challenges and adding it into the general response types. Thereafter, the team is able to classify the findings in order of power.

After acquiring the Australasian and New Zealand businesses of the second-largest United States bookstore chain Borders[2] (“Whitcoulls ' Borders bid cleared”, 2009) in 2008 the Whitcoulls Group obtained access to a high demographic serious books market niche (“Whitcoulls widens”, 2008). As a result, the Whitcoulls Group operates 90 stores across New Zealand (“Whitcoulls finally picks”, 2007) accounting for up to 45% of the book retail market (“Whitcoulls widens”, 2008). Further to the existing dominance in all the CBD areas, Whitcoulls is planning to expand into small-town areas starting from Te Awamutu, Richmond and Ashburton (“Booksellers ready”, 2008).

Amazon may believe it has the universe of book deals sewn up, however the £1bn HMV Media Group, which claims high-street book chain Waterstone's, is resolved to give the relentless Internet upstart a keep running for its cash. At first look, it's difficult to perceive how a high-road chain can go up against the costs and comfort of purchasing books online 24 hours a day, yet Waterstone's trusts that its physical store chain is a capable weapon in the Online book sale war.